The Camp (Chateau Book 2)

by Penelope Sky

  They spoke candidly because they didn’t realize I was there, so my trust in Raven was even more solidified than before. It felt pointless to stand there when there was nothing new to listen to, so I walked away and gave them their privacy.

  Napoleon walked right up to me, as if he’d been waiting for me to turn away and step into the room. His hand gripped the pommel of his black cane, and he looked at me with his stony expression. Every criminal had a specific energy, usually bad, but there was something about this guy that felt innately malevolent. “Your brother tells me you don’t like me.” A slow smile spread across his lips, like that was a compliment rather than an insult.

  “I like you even less now.”

  His grin widened. “We’re going to make a lot of money together. You’ll see.”

  I wished I didn’t have to see.

  He gave me a slight nod before he moved into the crowd and took a drink from a passing waiter.

  I watched him go, feeling that same unease in my stomach, like this guy was bad news. I’d been digging into him for a while and couldn’t find any red flags, but just because I couldn’t find them didn’t mean they weren’t there.

  A new face appeared in my vision.

  With long dark hair, green eyes, and a slight smile full of arrogance, she looked at me like she’d been waiting for this moment all night. “I have to admit, I’m a bit offended.”

  I stared at Stasia and felt the annoyance flood my body. I’d always been indifferent to her, just interested in the way our bodies felt when they were together. But the words out of her mouth always fell on deaf ears.

  Her eyes glanced past me before she looked at me again. “That you prefer to be with a hag over a woman that looks like me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave me a cold stare. “I guess we’re all into weird shit sometimes.”

  My eyes never trailed away from her face, and instead of just walking away like I normally would when a conversation was displeasing, I actually said something back. “I disagree.” It must have been her anger that provoked me, even though her words were so completely false that I shouldn’t feel obligated to fight them at all. Stasia was just a poor loser, trying to get into my head to get my attention. “Because she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  After Stasia walked away, I spotted Fender across the room—his arm around Melanie.

  My eyes narrowed in confusion before I turned around to search for Raven. She wasn’t there, so I returned to the sitting room to see if she was still sitting there, composing herself after the emotional conversation with her sister.

  But she wasn’t there either.

  I scanned the room, searching for the brunette in a black dress, but there were lots of women who fit that description, and none of them was ever the woman I was searching for. The front door opened, and I caught a glimpse of Raven through the cracks between people as she left.

  I had no idea where she was going.

  I maneuvered around the crowd to get to the entryway. Gilbert quickly opened the door, like he knew I had somewhere to be based on the intense look on my face. I stepped onto the main portico underneath the twenty-foot pillars with the lit-up lawn and enormous fountain out front. I turned to the right and didn’t see her. The valets were at the bottom of the stairs talking since everyone was inside and enjoying the party.

  I looked to the left and saw her standing there at the very edge, leaning against one of the pillars and looking at the lights from the city in the distance. Her long hair was down her back, and her arms were crossed over her chest.

  I came up behind her and stopped when I heard a sniffle. Her back rose with deep breaths, like she was doing everything she could to silence her sobs and turn quiet. Melanie looked fine, so I wasn’t sure what had provoked this raw emotion. Why would she go outside when she could stay in the sitting room?

  Then I remembered the way Stasia glanced behind me.

  Melanie had a drink in her hand and was engaged in conversation like she’d been standing there a while.

  Raven must have been behind me when Stasia decided to be a ruthless bitch.

  She’d heard everything.

  I stood there with my hands in the pockets of my tuxedo, unsure what to do to fix it. I could just go back inside and give Raven time to calm down on her own, but I didn’t want to leave her out there alone, suffering over something that wasn’t even true. There was only one thing that could bring her to tears, and name-calling wasn’t it. So, this had hurt her…deeply.

  I came closer to her and placed my hands on the backs of her arms so she would know I was there.

  The second she felt me, she stopped breathing.

  I moved until my head rested against the back of hers.

  She took a few moments to slow her breathing, to return herself to calm, to get the hot tears out of her throat so she could speak. “Who is she?”

  I took my time composing a response because I’d never had to give an answer like this before, never wanted to answer a lover’s intrusive question. “An on-again, off-again physical relationship. We were off when I was at the camp, and then when you burned it down, we were on again…and then off when you came back.” I’d always known Stasia had an ulterior motive with me, but she was easy sex, good sex, so I’d let her come back to me. “But we’re off for good now.”

  She didn’t turn around.

  I waited for her to say something, to turn around and brush off what she heard.

  But she didn’t.

  “It’s not true, Raven. You know it’s not.”

  She still didn’t move into me.

  My brother had made some comments, but he was an asshole, at least when it came to women. Anything less than perfect wasn’t good enough for him.

  Raven finally turned around, letting me see her puffy eyes, the pain still etched into her features, her ruined makeup because she had cried hard enough to make it run like black rivers down her face. “My whole life, Melanie has always been the pretty one. Every guy I liked would like her instead. If I met someone without her around, we’d hit it off…but then they would meet her, and it was always obvious they were more attracted to her than me. I’ve just been compared to her my entire life, and it hurts.”

  I’d never understood Fender’s fascination with Melanie when she was so unremarkable, but I didn’t say that…because Raven probably wouldn’t believe me.

  “When I moved to Paris, it was liberating. She was never there for comparison, and I met guys in bars and had a great time…but I always had that chip on my shoulder.” Her eyes were slightly down, looking at my chin like she was too self-conscious to look me in the eye. “And then, that woman is far more beautiful than I’ll ever be. And you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on… I’ve always known that you’re out of my league.”

  My eyes narrowed because I couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth. “What did I say to her?”

  She kept her gaze down.

  My hand moved under her chin, and I forced her to lift her gaze and look me in the eye.

  Her eyes started to water more, like she might cry again.

  “What did I say to her?” I whispered.

  When she blinked, new tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen…”

  “And I meant it.” It hurt me to see her like this, to have her ever feel inferior to a woman with half the brains, half the courage, and a fraction of her looks. Raven had a glow in her eyes that reminded me of the brightest stars in the night sky even on a cloudy night…because they were that luminous. There was no comparison, and there never had been one.

  “I know…” Her hands moved to my chest, her fingers feeling the buttons of my tuxedo shirt. “It’s the first time in my life that I have a man who thinks I’m the pretty one…who only notices me and not her…and I never thought that would happen.” When she blinked, her tears fell down her wet cheeks. “I don’t have to compete with her. I don’t have to co
mpete with anyone. Because you see me…you really see me.”

  Now I finally understood why she’d come out here to be alone, finally understood what her tears really meant. They grew from heartbreak. And then they fell down her cheeks for a different reason altogether. “Ma petite amie…” My girlfriend. My hands cupped her face, and I wiped her tears away with my thumbs, cradling her face in my embrace. “You see me too.”

  Twenty-Four

  The Slap

  Two weeks away from the camp had never been enough, and now it felt like even less time with Raven. The first day at the apartment was always a rough transition. We were tired from the long journey, and the dirt was still deep underneath our fingertips because only an intense scrubbing could clear it away. But the following day…the camp felt like a distant memory.

  It gave us two different lives.

  The one in Paris was one…and the camp was another.

  I lay on the couch with the TV on, Raven cuddled into my side in my t-shirt, one arm over my stomach while her leg was tucked between my knees. Her soft hair was always against my skin, gently tickling it, taunting me.

  I hit the screen on my phone and knew it was time for me to go. I shifted gently underneath her so she would know to move aside. I took my phone with me into my bedroom and changed into my jeans and t-shirt. When I came out dressed, she knew I was leaving.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Work.”

  “When you say work, what does that entail?” She was cold without me, so she grabbed a blanket and pulled it over her legs.

  “I’m meeting Fender to prepare a new distributor.”

  “The one you don’t like?”

  I nodded.

  “Be careful, okay?” Every time I left, she wanted me to come back. She wanted me to be returned to her in the same condition as when I left.

  I drove to Fender’s place, and Gilbert let me inside. It wasn’t as grand without a party taking place, but it was still a beautiful property that displayed his ridiculous wealth, wealth that hadn’t been passed down through generations until it reached his hands. It had been earned in one lifetime.

  Gilbert guided me out the back patio to where Fender sat at one of the tables. The rectangular pool was lit up a deep blue color, and Melanie rested her arms on the edge next to her drink, looking the other way to the lawn that stretched for acres behind the estate.

  Fender didn’t look at me as I joined him.

  Gilbert immediately placed a scotch in front of me and silently excused himself. A cheese board was on the table, with hard and soft cheeses as well as Marcona almonds, dried cherries, and dried apricots. A long baguette had already been sliced.

  I wasn’t hungry.

  Fender didn’t touch it either.

  It was probably for his muse in the pool.

  He stared at her for a long time, the light from the pool reflecting on his face. “You left early.”

  “Raven wasn’t feeling well.” After our conversation outside on the portico, I took her home. Neither one of us wanted to go back inside and mingle with people who didn’t matter. Her cheeks were puffy and her eyes were too red not to be noticed, and I didn’t want Stasia to rejoice in her success, even though her tactics only brought us closer together.

  Fender was quiet, but his silence showed his annoyance. “Napoleon and I agreed on a starting amount, a small introduction to the game. We’ll see how he does and go from there.”

  Our conversation at the party had only deepened my suspicion, but I kept those doubts to myself this time.

  “You’re the one who has to work with him most of the time. Is that going to be a problem?”

  I stared across the grounds, surrounded by fantastic gardens and a distinct sensation that made us feel separated far away from everything else. The city lights were visible, but they were easily blurred out by everything right in front of us. “You already know how I feel about him.”

  “But can you play nice?”

  “I can do my job. Didn’t say anything about being pleasant while doing it.”

  Fender grabbed his glass of wine and took a drink, his eyes on Melanie again.

  “But this is a mistake, Fender.”

  He took another drink before he set the glass down on the table. “If we can get product through Spain, we can use Napoleon to supply the entire African continent. That’s a lot of money on the table.”

  “If he has such a big cut, why wouldn’t he just overthrow us?”

  “Because he doesn’t know how to get the drugs.”

  “Come on, Fender,” I snapped. “If he really wanted to figure it out, after some time, he could. And this guy works in a whole different country. We really don’t know enough about him.”

  When Melanie heard us raise our voices, she turned around to look at us.

  “We agreed from the very beginning that we would only have small distributors, that we would keep them oppressed so they can’t rise up and defy us. But by recruiting someone like Napoleon, you’re risking all of that. And who the fuck names himself Napoleon? He’s not even European.”

  Fender remained calm despite my outburst. “We’re expanding. That’s how it works.”

  “There are a lot of other ways to do that.”

  Melanie got out of the pool and wrapped herself in the towel waiting for her at the edge. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, with gold hoops from her lobes. She had a full face of makeup even though she was swimming.

  Fender watched her round the pool and approach. “Most beautiful woman in the world, isn’t she?”

  I stared at the side of his face, remembering when he’d insulted Raven when she was right there, and I realized I knew exactly what she was talking about. He’d never remarked on the appearance of any woman I’d been with, but since Raven was Melanie’s sister and they looked different from each other, he felt compelled to say something cold. “I disagree.”

  Fender didn’t seem to hear me because his entire focus was on the woman walking toward him. He gently patted his thigh, and she came to his lap like a well-trained animal. He pulled her legs across his thighs and kissed her.

  I stared at the pool.

  Melanie helped herself to the cheese board and drank from his glass of wine.

  I knew the conversation was over.

  Melanie lifted her gaze and looked at me as she ate. “Is Raven okay? You two left abruptly.”

  “She’s fine.”

  She drank from the wineglass, her eyes on me. “You’re lying. You and Fender make the same face when you do that.”

  “I’m not lying. She’s fine.”

  “Maybe now she’s fine, but she wasn’t.”

  Fender stepped in. “She wasn’t feeling well. Supposedly.”

  Melanie set down the glass and ignored the gourmet food in front of her. Every glass of wine she had was from a vintage bottle, and the butler took care of every single need she had, she swam in a big pool in a mansion and sat in the lap of a man who adored her. Why would she jeopardize any of that? She wasn’t like Raven whatsoever. She was superficial, dull, and weak. “Please tell me.”

  It was hard for me to deny her when I knew she genuinely cared about her sister’s well-being. She couldn’t just call and ask her herself. It might be months before they saw each other again. “One of my old lovers said something to her.”

  “What?” Melanie asked.

  I shrugged. “That she doesn’t understand why I left her for someone much less attractive, basically.” It was untrue. Stasia had fake tits, plastic surgery, skipped breakfast, and only ate a hard-boiled egg for lunch every single day. She was worse than Melanie. “Which is completely untrue. She just said it to start shit.”

  Melanie erupted like a volcano, dormant one moment then explosive the next. “I’m gonna knock that bitch out! Who the fuck is this skank?”

  Fender chuckled at her anger. “Come on, she’s right. Stasia is sexy, and your sister is a swine.”

  Melanie turned to him and
gave him a vicious stare. She was still for a second before she pushed off him and got to her feet. Then she stared down at him, so furious she didn’t know what to do. Her palm slapped across his face so hard that an audible smack echoed over the grounds. “Don’t talk about my sister like that, asshole.”

  My eyes were wide because I couldn’t believe that just happened.

  Melanie marched back to the house, her legs moving quickly because she wanted to get away from Fender as quickly as possible.

  Fender turned to watch her go, but he didn’t go after her. His hand moved to his cheek, and he rubbed the inflamed skin before he grabbed his wine and took a drink like nothing happened. “Kinda liked it.” He looked across the grounds and swirled his glass absentmindedly.

  I’d never really liked Melanie because she was so submissive and stupid. Respect was difficult to earn from me, and it took courage and guts to get my admiration. But she’d earned a little bit tonight.

  I didn’t return to the apartment until two.

  I had other shit to do after leaving Fender’s place. I had to drop in on my distributors to make sure they were following the guidelines they agreed to once we signed them on. My job was all about accountability, both in and out of the camp.

  I left my wallet and keys downstairs because I didn’t lock up anything around Raven. There were guns stowed in every room of the apartment, and I had no doubt she’d uncovered at least one at some point in time. But I’d dropped my guard around her the way I did with one other person—my brother.

  I walked upstairs and noticed the light coming from the bedroom. One of the lamps was on. I stepped inside and found her sitting up in bed, reading a book by the light of the lamp. She must have been at a really good part because she didn’t look up at me right away. Her eyes trailed from left to right as she finished the page. Then she looked up at me. “Glad you’re home.”